


The Fallout

by mweerden



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Gee I Wonder what HoloBook reminds me of, Prompt Fic, Reylo - Freeform, after the war, wickedlywonderfulweekofreylo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2016-06-09
Packaged: 2018-07-13 22:03:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7139276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mweerden/pseuds/mweerden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey encounters social media drama and discovers how much this can make regular people behave like idiots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fallout

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt fill for the prompt "Unfollowed", as part of KagamiSorciere's WickedlyWonderfulWeekOfReylo!
> 
> Social media drama. Nuff said right?
> 
> Thanks to Elywyngirlie for beta'ing and continued moral support :)! <3

Rey awoke early on Saturday morning, the first rays of sunshine slanting in through the window and covering their bed in a wonderful golden glow.

She raised her head and smiled at Millicent, who was, predictably, draped across the beam of sunshine on the bed. _Always looking for the warm spots, that one_ , Rey thought.

She turned to watch the large shape of Ben Solo next to her. His chest rose and fell peacefully, still fast asleep. In quiet times like this, she often found herself contemplating the scar on his face, and how far they had come since then. They had moved into their apartment together almost 6 years after that last fight in the snow, and since then Rey had finally settled into living instead of surviving.

With no war left to fight, no more scores to settle, their lives had finally found a peaceful path.

“Scoot over Millie,” Rey hissed. “I need my legs back!”

Millicent looked at her with barely concealed disdain and Rey almost burst out laughing. _Oh, how much she looked like her former owner in these moments!_ ”Don’t you dare pull a Hux on me, Millie,” Rey said, as she unceremoniously scooted the cat over to Ben’s side.

Rey was supposed to meet Finn for breakfast in an hour, something she had been looking forward to for the past week. She stepped into the fresher and got dressed quietly, so as not to wake Ben.

When she had finished getting ready, she took her datapad and opened HoloBook, as she usually did at both the start and the end of her days. To her, HoloBook was a great way to keep connected to friends all over the galaxy. She quickly finished scanning the updates, and quietly left to meet Finn.

\---

Their first get together in two weeks did not go well at all. Finn was distant and sullen and Rey had a feeling he had something on his mind.

After several minutes of chewing in uncomfortable, awkward silence, Rey had had enough.

“Finn, is something on your mind? I’ve never seen you this quiet before,” Rey ventured.

Finn smiled sourly and bit back: “You ought to know.”

“Ought to know what?!” Rey exclaimed. She was quickly getting fed up with his behavior.

“You ought to know, since you’re the one who unfollowed me on HoloBook!” Finn blurted out.

Rey could only look at him in baffled silence for a moment, before her temper quickly got the better of her again. “I most certainly did NOT!”

Finn took out his datapad to prove to her that she was no longer following him on HoloBook.

“Finn I swear I did not do this! Why would I? You’re my first and best friend!”

“I thought…maybe he pressured you into doing it,” Finn replied hesitantly.

“Who? _Ben_?! Kriff Finn, I know you two aren’t the best of friends. I understand. But if you can’t trust Ben, the least you can do is trust me!”

That broke the tension between them. Finn’s shoulders sagged. “You’re right, Rey. I should have come to you first, but I know how Ben feels about HoloBook and I just assumed...,” he trailed off.

Rey frowned at that. Yes, Finn knew how Ben felt about HoloBook. Almost everyone did, because Ben was always very vocal about things he felt strongly about. And he absolutely despised HoloBook. He hated the drama, the infighting, the mob mentality. Rey decided that not much would be gained from telling Ben what happened.

\---

In the weeks following her breakfast with Finn, Rey had almost forgotten what happened. Until, one night, the comm signal started beeping. Ben was doing the dishes while she was looking over a summary of that morning’s briefing. Rey pawed at the comm station and as it switched on, Jessika’s shrill voice rang through their kitchen even before her little blue hologram appeared.

“What the hell is your problem, Rey?” Jessika barked.

Ben snapped his head up in confusion. Rey could only stare at Jess’ image, mouth agape.

“Do you enjoy playing with people’s feelings like this? Don’t think Finn didn’t tell me what happened!”

“Jess? What are you going on about? What about Finn?” Rey stammered.

“I’m talking about HoloBook, Rey, what the kriff else would I be talking about, if not about my best friend unfollowing me?” Jess snarled.

In her periphery, Rey caught Ben’s reaction at hearing the word _HoloBook_. He rolled his eyes, turned back to the sink and threw the plate he was holding carelessly back into the dishwater. He became very still, but Rey did not miss the sight of his hands gripping the counter so tight they turned white. She had to defuse this situation before either Jess or Ben said something they would not be able to take back.

“Jess, honey, please. I’ll tell you the same thing I told Finn: I didn’t unfollow you. Honest!” Rey pleaded. “You _have_ to believe me! I’ll refollow you as soon as we hang up, I promise.”

“Yeah, well,” Jess flustered, deflating a little bit at seeing Rey’s earnest expression. “These things don’t just happen you know. It’s not like there are poltergeists going around kriffing up people’s HoloBook accounts.”

“Well, who knows there aren’t?” Rey remarked smartly. She could see Ben pinching the bridge of his nose with a groan. “Just, let’s let it rest for a bit okay? I’ll refollow you tonight and we’ll get together for caf tomorrow.”

Jess reluctantly agreed to drop it for the moment. After Rey had disconnected the comm station, Ben wasted no time at all to dramatically turn around and give his opinion on the matter.

“Stars Rey, kriffing HoloBook drama!” Ben exclaimed. “That stuff is _only_ good for drama, why do you even bother?! If you and Jess even knew how ridiculous you just sounded.”  

Rey scowled at her man. “Now listen up for just a second. I did not ask for any of this! Or do you happen to think I take some perverse pleasure in this as well?” Unable to help herself, Rey burst into tears.

She buried her face in her hands and let out all the shock of the last comm transmission.  Ben’s arms were wrapped around her in an instant. He kissed her crown and whispered sweet words of comfort in her ear.

“Come on, sweetheart, let’s just go to sleep. We’ll see if we can’t figure all this out in the morning.”

\---

Rey allowed herself be led to their bedroom. She snuggled under the covers as Ben cuddled up behind her and snaked his arm around her waist. Exhausted from all the stress of that evening, Rey was asleep almost instantly.

Sleep was fitful--Rey moaned in her sleep and tossed around in bed. In her dream, her friends were all turning their backs on her in anger. First Finn, then Jess, then Poe. And, last of all, Ben. Tears streamed down her face as she dreamed that he turned away from her and _people were laughing at her_ , _pointing and laughing at her_ \--

The laughter swelled and swelled until it was all she could perceive and it slowly dragged Rey from her nightmare. She opened her eyes and blinked in confusion. It was _Ben’s_ laughter she was hearing, _but that wasn’t right, he was right beside her--_ she turned her head and found Ben’s side of the bed empty.

Her curiosity piqued, tears instantly forgotten, she got out and walked towards the door. As she walked through the short hallway, Millicent shot past her, clearly trying to escape the madman in the kitchen.

When she reached the kitchen, she could not help but break out in a confused grin. Ben was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor, holding his arms wrapped around his stomach and _howling_.

Tears were streaming down his face as he looked up at Rey. He made an effort to get himself into some semblance of control.

“Oh Rey, oh my stars! You wouldn’t believe what I just saw,” Ben said, and broke into a new round of giggles. “I solved the HoloBook mystery, sweetheart!”

Rey was starting to get a bit exasperated. “Ben, what? How even? Could you start making some sense please?”

“I woke up because you were thrashing around the bed like some kind of beached dolphin, and I figured you were having a nightmare. I was going to wake you up but came in here to get a glass of water for you first. And I saw..” Ben trailed off. “Rey, when you go to bed, do you lock the screen of your datapad?”

Rey was baffled by the sudden change of direction. “Why would I? It’s the first thing I go to in the morning anyway.”

“Well,” Ben said with a smirk. “Datapads get warm with use, right? Guess who likes to sleep in warm places?”

Rey’s eyes went round with understanding. “Millicent!”

Ben burst into another round of giggles. “So I guess you were not crazy after all, sweetheart.”

Rey grinned despite herself. “Leave it to a First Order cat to turn people against each other.”


End file.
